Thursday, May 25, 2006

I think it's time to make a little money, and I hear Nebimonites are in demand by alchemists crafting Black Ink. I haven't had a chance to check the market to determine whether the raw fish will sell for more profit than the ink, but in any case this sounds like a fun way to make some gil and change the scenery again.

At my fishing level, the safest way to target these will be to use Crayfish Ball on the Mhaura ferry (releasing any !!! for obvious reasons). So it looks like it's time for me to take Cooking a little further to 45. The skillup path to that level looks pretty painless, so I'll be cooking a bit more for the next few nights.

Tuesday, May 23, 2006

It's become evident that I'm going to need lots of Insect Paste in the long run. Several tons of it, from what I gather. At 1500-2000 gil per stack, that's quite a gil drain. So I've taken a few sessions to level Cooking to 28 (and change). Synthing my own paste also saves quite a bit of room since 4 stacks of materials yield 12 stacks of bait.

Leveling cooking from 6-11 allowed me to multi-task and skillup fishing at the same time, since Sliced Sardine was the recipe of choice in that range. I used a Sabiki Rig in Port Windurst and caught Quus for fishing skillups, while using the Bastore Sardines I was catching to level up Cooking. Fun stuff! I hope to have more such moments of Fishing/Cooking synergy.

Getting cooking past 10 has also enabled me to synthesize Sairui-Ran with my Alchemy skill, but I'll probably hold off on crafting those until my Woodcraft enables me to synthesize the Bast Parchment myself.

Skillups in fishing have been slower than expected, but not discouraging, since I'm not exclusively targeting the skillup fish. I want to collect carp as I go, rather than skillup as fast as I can and then worry about them.

I think I'll head to the jungles instead of Jugner this afternoon and fish there, just for a change of scenery. I'm very vigilant for the !!! messages, so I'm not too worried about fishing up a nasty mob.

In the back of my mind, I'm also itching to level NIN to 37 and be done with it, but I haven't found the consecutive time to LFG and party yet, so fishing & crafting will have to do for now.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

In working toward the 2 million gil mark that would allow me to purchase the Amemit Mantle +1, everything has been progressing pretty smoothly (about 700k to go). I've been supplying the AH with Sleeping Potion, Poison Potion (camping the Bibiki Bay shop for the cobalt), Firesand, and Carbon Fiber for a pretty steady income. Rather than opt for Concoction, I purchased the Trituration key item with my guild points, and I'm glad I did. Since I farm all of my Water and Lightning crystals, I appreciate the savings in crystals. And given my short time-windows I definitely enjoy the time savings (most recipes yield 3, so it only takes 4 synths to make a quick stack).

But I've decided I need to branch out further. One of the deciding factors has been the fluctuating Alchemy market, which I think is mostly due to the new expansion and the time spent on new jobs rather than CoP activities. One week Poison Potion will be scarce at about 10-20 stacks with constant demand for about 40k per stack (massive profits here). The next week, demand dries up and random Alchemy newbies spam the AH with stacks bringing supply into the upper 50's and the price plummets to something around 23-24k (you're better off selling the Mercury at this point). After seeing this happen a couple of times, I've decided to diversify.

And I'm really enjoying fishing so far. After selling a few stacks of Moat Carps for the crack-like high (9k of free money per stack ... wheeee), I decided to start tucking them away for the Lu-Shang quest. I've studied fishing quite a bit and can tell I'm about to step into something that may very well spiral into obsessive depravity, and I'm perfectly OK with it. I still want to eventually alternate fishing and crafting (especially when I can fish up alchemy ingredients), but for the next few days, I think I'll be skilling up and storing Moat Carps. I like the Titanictus.com guide that provides options for people who want to collect the carps as they go from 0-50, rather than wait until they hit 50. I think I'll be following that method for awhile.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Thursday, May 04, 2006

As some of you may have guessed, I haven't been on in awhile because...

My daughter Scout Amelie Bauman was born on April 27th at 8:08 AM. She weighed 7 lbs. 8 oz. and has regained most of that weight now (they lose a bit after birth), and she measured 20 inches (she's probably already a bit taller now). She's an amazing little person, and Hunter is being a terrific big brother. I'll post a pic soon.

In FFXI news I met a couple of bonafide noobs a couple of days ago while I was perusing the Bastok AH. They were green enough to not completely understand the UI (couldn't reply to my tells at first), nor had they sold anything on the AH yet, or bought any maps to Gustaberg... yes, that new. I befriended them, gave the Warrior an Axe (the other guy is a BLM for now), gave them tips on how to get started, and answered lots and lots and LOTS of questions. It's been a bit overwhelming, so I try to only tell them as much as they need to know & focus them on their immediate goals, but it's a fine balance between helping them out and hand-holding them. I expect another round of questions tonight... so far they haven't begged for anything, which is a good sign.

My sessions -- for obvioius reasons -- have been pretty limited, so I've been focusing on earning Guild Points in order to purchase the Concoction key item (20,000 GP). This will open up another crafting option for me: Hi-Potion Drops. They sell for around 60k per stack of 12, a market that is a bit less crowded than the flood of 5k Hi-Potions. It's not a fabulous option, but the more products available to me, the better. I'm not sure whether I want to pursue Iatrochemistry yet, at least not until the Puppetmaster market stabilizes a bit. I'm working on diversifying my sales because, once again, the Silent Oil market bubble has burst, and stacks are back down to 30k. Yes, the Alchemy party's over.Since I'm on a 4-week paternity leave, I've been signing on at random hours and buying up tons of Cobalt Jellyfish in Bibiki Bay. I'm swimming in Mercury now (hmmm, that can't be healthy huh?). I'll probably keep 2-3 stacks for personal use and sell the rest as Poison Potion (40k/stack). Next on the list will be Firesand, and eventually Hi-Po drops.

During one of my random afternoon sessions (while Hunter and Scout were sleeping), some LS members formed a skillup party in Boyhada Tree and I joined up for a short while ... long enough to cap out my Great Axe at 203. What a relief!